May be silly questions...

[mommybess, BSN, RN]

I work in a very busy 61 bed postpartum unit that does about 500 births a month. We expanded last year from approx. 200 - 250 a month. We doubled our postpartum rooms and we have slowly added the RNs to the unit.

Recently our patient satisfaction scores have dropped to 44% in the area of cleaniless.

However, the hospital just added a 3rd housekeeper during the day (shared by other units( for daily cleaning and trash/linen removal. At night there are only 2-3 housekeepers for the whole hospital and they mostly just clean rooms after patients have been discharged. And we have 2 PCTs, one that works 7am - 3pm 5 days a week and one that works 1pm - 1am 3 days a week. They have recently been moved from doing patient care tasks such as showers, ambulation, vitals, etc... to rounding on every patient each shift to remove trash and linen, and provide water and supplies.

So, now management wants the RNs to start pulling trash and linens ourselves when hampers and trash and get 1/2 full. Supposedly the complaint is that pts are smelling blood and are embarrassed. I have no problem with emptying a patients trash or hamper if it needs it but I know that many of my co-workers aren't going to do this.

Our current ratio is 4 couplets to 1 RN and occassionally 5 couplets.

So, my question is "How is trash and linen removal handled in your hospital?" How many PCTs or CNAs do you have pt rooms? and do you have full time housekeepers that make rounds more than once a day, and are they specifically for your unit?

And what type of trash cans do you use in the bathrooms for bloody personal items?

[CrazierThanYou]

I'm not a nurse yet, just a student, but I don't think this should be the responsibility of nurses OR CNA's. The hospital should have sufficient housekeeping staff to keep things clean. Just my 2 cents.

[Daisy Child]

We have house keepers, but we still have the responsibility of pulling trash and linen when it gets full. I usually just tie up the bags and put them by the door. We also have 4 couplets and occasionally 5. We have to supply the fresh towels, wash cloths, and make beds with fresh linen. I work 7p-7a.. we do not have a CNA or a PCT. Only days has a PCT.

[dscrn]

wel, when I started nursing, we did all the linen and trash. Several yrs back, the nurses aides became either techs, or "hostesses" Responsible for all cleaning (except for floor polishing), emptying trash, linen-AND delivering your meal tray. Don't know about you, but, even with gloves, I don't want to see someone cleaning the br one minute, bring tray the next. They also had to clean labor rooms, after deliveries. Needless to say, out of courtesy to pts, we emptied trash, linen-don't really see what a big deal it is. If I were the pt, I would not want to sell bloody garbage...

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

in our facility the housekeeping staff budget is by square foot, not census or acuity. This means we do not have enough period. Nurses and techs clean when they need to. Every room has a red box with lid. More staffing is the answer of course and no one wants to hear that.

[jorjaRN]

When i was a PCT it was part of our responsibility to empty the trash cans and linen carts at the end of every shift, or if they were full. We had housekeeper, and I seem to remember her being only on our floor for day shift, but i could be wrong. I'm not sure how much ground the housekeeper for evenings/nights had to cover. Either way, I never had much of an issue emptying the trash...it took about 10 minutes. However, it was understood that if things were busy, that was pretty much the last priority.

One thing that i think is pretty simple, but helped ALOT was that the trash cans were lined with multiple trash bags, so when you pulled out the full one, you didn't have to put in a new bag. I always just went around with one of the bigger bags, emptied all the little ones into it, tied it up and put it in the soiled utility room.

Now that I'm a nurse, i still empty the trash if it's full, or if we clean someone up and it's full of really stinky stuff. I do work nights, though, so there's really no one else to do it, and I tend to have the downtime I need.

[CrazierThanYou]

Now that I think about it, at one local facility, CNA's have to take the trash and dirty laundry cans and empty them but at the other local facility, its the housekeepers' responsibility.

[Kim, HHRN]

I'm not a nurse yet, just a student, but I don't think this should be the responsibility of nurses OR CNA's. The hospital should have sufficient housekeeping staff to keep things clean. Just my 2 cents.

Lol....when I was a student, I didn't know it was the nurse's responsibility either. I found out when I became a nurse, and then I found out it was our duty informally. Of course, I don't mind doing it, what I do mind is not being told what is expected of me upfront. Most places of employment tell their employees these things, but so far in health care, I am finding out my responsibilities as I go along......seems kind of strange......

[debbiernbsn]

I have found that these duties are usually snuck in your hospital's nurse job description under the little phrase "job duties as assigned!" LOL

[shortstuff31117]

I work nights, and I think there may be only 1 housekeeper at night (small hospital). But regardless of day or night, the housekeepers will not go into our pts. rooms, unless there is a big mess and we request that they do. (They will go in pt rooms on other floors but not ours, not sure why). So basically it's up to the nurse to empty the linens and trash. I'm used to it and I don't have a problem with it. Some of my coworkers are not so good about it and it makes me mad but what can you do! It does stink if things don't get emptied...

[legaleagle]

I worked my way thru nursing school as a CNA. Our hospital required us to empty trash/linen bags at the end of each 8-hour shift. But...we also had 1 CNA per 8 patients. One CNA for a 61 bed unit sounds very understaffed.

Also, you have 8-10 patients, so your time as a nurse is limited. Adding trash duty to your heavy patient load sounds like management is not valuing you as a nurse. It's one thing to help out in a pinch, but I don't feel taking out the trash on a regular basis should be a nursing duty.